Viral photo of diver face to face with shark turns out to be fake

A photo of a diver face to face with an apex predator had many people questioning the authenticity of the picture, and has now been revealed to be a fake.

On Friday, Perth and WA Fishing Reports had the image uploaded to their Facebook page showing a diver and a shark within inches of each other. The diver has his gloved hand on the shark’s nose, allegedly “sedating” the animal.

“My bro sent me this photo taken of a local diver near Augusta pushing away this great white with his glove on the nose,” the poster wrote on the Perth and WA Fishing Reports page, though the post appears to have been removed.

[From Facebook]

Turns out the photo was just fishing for attention. The shark in the image is actually a dead Mako shark, and while still large, was of no danger to the diver.

The Western Australian broke the story of the shark stunt, which garnered 11,000 likes, 3600 comments and almost 4,000 shares, being false.

And while many media outlets picked up the hoax as a real story, readers were skeptical to begin with.

“Look at the water around it,” wrote Remus Parish. “The only ripples are the guy pushing forward. That shark is stationary. Then again I could be completely wrong. But hey, an opinion is an opinion. That face is exertion not fear. Also, the body angle looks wrong.”